Jakobstad (Swedish: Jakobstad) is a Finnish city located in the
province of Ostrobothnia on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia. The
total area of the city is 396.35 km2, of which 88.44 km² is land.
The center of Jakobstad is characterized by wide streets and
esplanades separating the districts. The western areas of the
municipality, in turn, are dominated by agriculture and forestry.
The city is inhabited by 19,198 people. Jakobstad is bilingual: at
the end of 2018, 56.3 per cent of the population spoke Swedish and
34.7 per cent Finnish.
The town was founded in 1652 by the
widow of Count Jakob De la Gardie, Ebba Brahe, with the permission
of Queen Kristiina of Sweden. Pietarsaari received a partial right
of way in 1765, and at the end of the century Finland became
Finland's largest ship producer. In 1950, new areas from the
Pietarsaari countryside were joined to Jakobstad. At the same time,
migration to the city was driven by new industrial facilities. The
restructuring of the economy has also affected Pietarsaari, and
traditional factory jobs have been lost in the region, but new
industry has emerged to replace them. The processing sector has a
clearly larger share of Pietarsaari's workforce than the Finnish
average.
Jakobstad is known as the birthplace of the national
poet J. L. Runeberg, and the city hosts an annual literature-focused
Runeberg Week. Attractions in the city include Pedersöre Church,
built in the 1520s, and the Strengberg Tobacco Factory, which has
the largest clock in the Nordic countries in its bell tower.
Pietarsaari's cultural life is diverse and association activity is
lively. There is a cultural offering for almost every day of the year.
Pietarsaari's cultural activity nurtures and promotes the abundance of
association and cultural life in the city.
Media and
communication
The Swedish-language newspaper Jakobstads Tidning has
been published since 1898. Since 2008, its name has been Österbottens
Tidning. The Finnish-language newspaper Pietarsaari Sanomat also appears
in the city. PS Pulssi is a free magazine that comes out on Fridays. The
magazine is distributed to 12,100 households in Pietarsaari and Luodo,
as well as collection points in Uussakaarlepyi and Pedersören
municipality. Before this, several Finnish-language local newspapers
appeared in Pietarsaari: from the end of the 1920s to the beginning of
the 1930s, a paper called Pietarsaari was published, in the beginning of
the 1960s Tietotuslehte and Pohjalaina (later Keski-Pohjalainen). The
local newspaper has no connection with the current regional newspaper
Pohjalainen.
Pietarsaari was the first in Ostrobothnia and among
the first in Finland to get its own radio station. The station started
broadcasting on May 7, 1926, and was founded with the funds collected by
the radio association of Central Ostrobothnia. In 1934, Yleisradio
bought the station of Pietarsaari's local radio association.
Pietarsaari's local television is run by JakobstadTVPietarsaari ry,
which was founded in 1989. In addition to Pietarsaari's cable companies,
the channel's visibility extends to the cable networks of Uudenkaarlepy,
Pedersören municipality, Kokkola and Luoto. JTVP broadcasts a spiritual
program on Monday and Sunday evenings. City council meetings are shown
live once a month on Monday evenings. Monday's broadcasts mainly consist
of videoing of Jaakon Päivie, Spotlight and Runeberg week. The channel
also shows broadcasts from other local public events, interviews with
private persons, footage of military historical trips and interviews
with veterans.
The old harbor (Gamla Hamn) is a harbor area located in Kittholma
next to the city center. It serves as the home port of the Jacobstads
Wapen, the newest symbol of Pietarsaari. There is a dock in the harbor
where the three-masted schooner Vega has been renovated in recent years.
There is also a beach and a water park called Fanta Sea. Little known is
the old-growth forest surrounded by Vanhahaminantie, where felling of
trees was prohibited as early as the 18th century. A chewing track runs
through the trunks of the handsome giant pines. The forest is probably
one of Finland's first forest conservation areas.
In Fäboda, about
eight kilometers west of the center, there is a kilometer-long sandy
beach, a camping area, a summer restaurant, as well as several nature
trails and the famous "velvet forest", which is managed taking into
account the recreational and natural values of the area. The city's
actual camping area Svanen is located on the north side of the city.
Nanoq is Finland's first arctic museum. It presents research, nature,
peoples and culture of the Arctic and Antarctic regions. It is also
located in Fäboda.
The Chicory Museum is a factory milieu in the
Alholma district. The Chicory Museum is the only surviving chicory
factory in Finland. In addition to the factory, there is a chicory
master's house, a summer office and a warehouse in the area.
The
oldest parts of Pedersöre's medieval stone church were built in the
1520s, and expanded between 1787 and 1795.
Associated with J.L.
Runeberg are the so-called Westmann Moor's hut, where Runeberg learned
to read, and the so-called Runeberg's hut, which was built by Runeberg's
father in 1811 and which the townspeople donated to Runeberg himself in
1851 after being renovated.
Pietarsaari's summer event is called
Jacob's Days. The days are in July around Jaakko's name day and last
about a week.
The 7-bridge Archipelago Road leads the archipelago
route through the Luoto islands to Kokkola, as the name suggests,
through seven bridges.
The Pietarsaari water tower from 1931 was
designed by architect Lars Sonck.
There is an empty pilot station on
Mässkär island, which currently has a restaurant and meeting and
overnight facilities.
At the beginning of February, Pietarsaari's literature-focused culture week, Runeberginviikko, is organized. Jaakon Päiviä has been organized since the 1970s. The event has grown from a weekend event to a week-long celebration. Children's day and the old-time market are Jaakon Päivie's regular program. Music association Jazzoo organizes Thursday jazz concerts, where local and internationally known musicians perform. Spotlight, i.e. the night of culture and commerce, is an event organized in Pietarsaari in August. The program includes art, music and dance. Many shops are open until almost midnight at that time. In November, the annual international chamber music festival Rusk is organized in Pietarsaari, which combines high-level chamber music and various arts. Most of the festival's events take place in the Schauman hall in the center of the city, but the events also spread more widely into the surrounding urban milieu.
Scottish businessman George Easton brought football to Pietarsaari as
early as 1903. FF Jaro was founded in 1965, and it was promoted to the
Championship for the first time in 1989. Jaro played in the 2019 season
in the First Division, but has a total of 23 years in the main league.
The women's team FC United was separated from Jaro in 1993. It has won
the Finnish championship twice. IF Drott, on the other hand, is a
multi-sport club founded in 1921.
Pietarsaari's swimming hall was
opened in 1967. Pietarsaari's central field, i.e. the athletics and
football stadium, was opened in 1971. The stadium serves as the home
ground of FF Jaro. Tellushalli is a hall put into use in 1991, where
football and track and field are mainly played. The size of the field is
100 m × 60 m. The hall has five running tracks and the possibility of
throwing and jumping sports. In addition to sports events, fairs and
other events are organized in Tellushall. Rettig's old industrial hall
was renovated into a sports facility in 2016–2018. Indoor basketball,
futsal, badminton and table tennis are played in the sports facility,
and gymnastics classes are held.
The film For the Living and the Dead is based on a series of events
that happened in Pietarsaari in the 1980s, where the family's younger
son died in a tragic accident in the yard of a private house.
In
2008, the travel program Paskareisu was shown on Sub, one episode of
which featured Pietarsaari. In Yle's series, Niko Kivelä and corner
municipalities Niko Kivelä visited Pietarsaari. The topics of the
episode were the history of weapons, the Arctic museum Nanoq, plant
rarities, boat carving, football and bird watching without bird towers.
The events of Tommi Liimata's fifth novel Jeppis take place in
Pietarsaari. There is also a sequel to the novel, Jeppis 2.
The Swedish name of the city comes from the first name of Count Jakob
De la Gardie, while the Finnish name has survived as Pietarsaari, formed
from the name Pedersöre. Professor Lars Huldén, who has studied
Finnish-Swedish nomenclature, considers it most likely that the original
form of the name Pedersöre is Petrasaari or Pedhrasaari in ancient
Finland, or Peurasaari in modern Finnish.
In colloquial language,
the common name for the city is Jeppis.
Location
Pietarsaari consists of a peninsula bordering the
brackish water of the Perämere in the west, the mouths of Ähtävänjoki
and Purmonjoki in the east, and the freshwater basin of Lake
Luodonjärvi. Pietarsaari's neighboring municipalities are Luoto,
Pedersören municipality, and Uusikaarlepyy. In addition to these,
Kruunupyy is also part of the Pietarsaari district. The nearest larger
cities are Kokkola in the northeast and Vaasa in the southwest.
Nature and soil
Most of the water area belonging to Pietarsaari is
Perämerta and Lake Luodonjärvi. The salinity of the back sea in front of
Pietarsaari is about 0.35 percent, and the concentration is lower in the
archipelago. There is no tidal phenomenon on the coast, but wind and air
pressure fluctuations raise and lower the water. There is a small
archipelago to the north of the city, which borders on the large
archipelago on the Luoto side. There are almost no archipelagos on the
west side of the area. The back sea is open to the west and southwest.
The sea is also slowly deepening.
Luodonjärvi on the northeast
side of Pietarsaari was formed in 1962 to secure the supply of raw
water. Its water is used by UPM-Kymmene and the city of Pietarsaari. In
addition, some water is used to irrigate crops. The surface area of the
lake is 8,500 hectares. The water in the lake is brown and rich in
nutrients, because the waters flowing there bring humus and nutrients.
There are only eight inland lakes in the municipality, and they are also
small and shallow. Only a small part of the Purmon and Ähtävänjos flows
within the borders of Pietarsaari. However, Pietarsaari has several
smaller streams, which have mostly been drained into ditches.
Large shifting boulders are common in the area. Ilveskivi, one of
Finland's largest shifting boulders, is located in Purmo, Pedersöre
municipality. On a larger scale, the surface formation is characterized
by a series of ridges starting from Alahärmä and ending in the sea at
the tip of Cape Ådö. The coast of Pietarsaari has rocky beaches and
rocky islands that are rare for Ostrobothnia. The bedrock consists
mainly of acidic deep rock types. The Pietarsaari area is located in the
northern area of the migmatite-granite massif that runs along the coast
from the Vaasa region. The eastern parts of the area flank the mica
gneiss belt of Ostrobothnia. The most common type of soil is moraine.
Due to the evenness of the surface formation, Pietarsaari has a lot
of bogs, especially in Fäboda and Pörkenäs. The swamps have mostly been
drained and are turning into woodlands. In the forests owned by the
city, pine is about 50 percent, spruce about 30 percent, and hardwoods
about 20 percent. The area's forests differ considerably from the
corresponding distribution of the entire country (pine 32%, spruce 56%,
and hardwoods 12%). Intensive forestry based on artificial forest
regeneration has single-sided the forests of Pietarsaari.
Pietarsaari has a total of five Natura sites: the small but diverse
Gubbträskberget, the Luoto archipelago shaped by uplift, Ähtävänjoki
with its otters, Fänäsnabba, a site of the old forest protection
program, and Sandsundsfjärden, a bird protection site. The natural
habitat types of Pietarsaari are the natural sandy beaches of Fäboda and
Storsand and the seaside meadows of Fäboda and Ådösand.
The biota
of Pietarsaari is not precisely known, but it is estimated that around
160 species of birds regularly occur in the municipality's territory,
and it is estimated that 400–500 species of vascular plants grow there.
Of the species mentioned in the nature conservation decrees, the salt
marsh, osprey, white-tailed eagle, little woodpecker, black-backed gull,
shrike, northern bat, waterfinch, otter and flying squirrel have been
found in Pietarsaari. Backed gull is the name species of Pietarsaari.
Pietarsaari is home to one of Finland's largest colonies of black-backed
gulls. In Pietarsaari, ringed-backed gulls have been found in East
Africa, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Kenya. In Morocco and the Mediterranean,
observations of wintering back gulls have been made.
After the
melting of the continental ice, the land near Pietarsaari rose by 10
meters per century. At the beginning of the countdown, the land
elevation was 130 centimeters per century. The first elevations in the
area of Pietarsaari rose above the water level in the 8th century. Since
the founding of the city, the land has risen by more than three meters.
As a result, the location of the port has been moved several times.
Around the time the town was founded, the harbor was located near the
current market, from where it was moved to Kittholma. From Kittholma,
the port moved to Alholma and further to its current location a little
further north. There used to be an island called Puskasaari near the
current port, which has grown close to the mainland as a result of
uplift.
There are wide streets from Tunnusomai to the center of Pietarsaari,
esplanades separating neighborhoods, and front gardens of the wealthiest
lots in the southern part of the city. Skata is Finland's largest
unified wooden house district. Apart from a few stone houses, it was the
only one that escaped the city fire in 1835. The part of the city has
been protected since 1981.
Pietarsaari's pedestrian street was
inaugurated on October 1, 1992, after years of preparatory work and
discussions. In the center of Pietarsaari, a market park was opened at
the end of 2016, the size of which is approximately 7,000 square meters
on two levels. There are places for a little more than 200 cars in the
market park. The shopping center Jakob Center was built in connection
with Toripark. In the spring of 2017, Pietarsaari was by far number one
according to the vitality comparison of city centers commissioned by the
Living City Centers association. In the comparison, 25 city centers were
compared. The vitality figure of the center of Pietarsaari was 6,146.
The vitality figure is increased by the shops and restaurants open on
Saturdays in the center and the low number of empty business premises.
The western regions of Vestersundinkylä, Kisor and Hällan are areas
dominated by agriculture and forestry with open fields. The forests of
Vestersundikylä are used for recreation. Settlements have been formed on
the roadside, but also with the help of subdivision plans. Varvet is a
valuable villa area. Grundet is an artificial, unbuilt cape created by
spreading dredged masses. According to a study conducted in 1978,
Pietarsaari had 8.3 leisure cottages per kilometer of beach, which was
the most in all of Finland. In 2018, there were 13.56 leisure cottages
per square kilometer in Pietarsaari.
The core of Pietarsaari probably got its current block division and
street orientation in its first site plan in 1653. The land surveyor
Erik Niurén is considered to have drawn up the site plan.
The
city's only surviving representative of Gothic is Pietarsaari
pitajänkirkko, which contains Gothic only in the stone structures of the
frame house and the tower. Due to several changes, the church represents
the parallel and overlapping appearance of several different styles. A
cross church was built on Pietarsaari in 1691, which was burned by the
Russians in 1714. The church builder Simon Knubb built a new cross
church in its place between 1728 and 1731. At first, the church had a
temporary tabule until one was built by Heikki Katila. Despite its small
size and subsequent changes, the church is clean in style and represents
the church building trends of the time.
Neoclassicism is
represented by Pietarsaari's country parish rectory (1755–1776), the new
buildings of Pietarsaari's parish church, the town hall (1787) and
Lindskog's house (1797) built along Vaasantie, as well as Castren's
house (1822) and the school building (1820) along Isonkatu, which served
as a Swedish-language secondary school until 1904. The building was also
used by a Finnish national school, a library, and the city museum. The
school building was demolished in 1927 and Castren's house in 1956. The
demolition of the latter led to the establishment of the Ebba Brahe
Samfundet, which focused on local history and environmental protection.
After the fire of 1835, empire buildings were rebuilt on Etelänumme.
The first building that represented the style was the Malmi house built
between 1836 and 1838, which today functions as a museum. In the Late
Empire era, the Pietarsaari town hall (1854–1875), Maria's public school
(1873, now Marjala tarha) and the oldest part of the tobacco factory
(1898) were built. In the renovations started in 1890, the town hall
received a neo-Renaissance facade.
The first art nouveau building
on Pietarsaari is the electricity plant building built in 1900. In 1905,
the electric utility got the building of the city sauna to continue on
its north side. Jugend is also represented by the Swedish high school
built in connection with Koulupuisto. the school was inaugurated in the
autumn of 1904. Other Art Nouveau buildings built at that time include,
for example, the Malmi hospital, the poor house, the brewery's financial
building, the office building of the mechanical engineering workshop,
the residential buildings of the brewery and the engineering workshop,
the customs packing room, the City Hotel, the maternity hospital, the
newer part of the tobacco factory, the fire department, Lagmani school
and several villas.
The classicism of the 1920s is represented by
the Ristikar school, the Ruusulehto school and the water tower. In
Pietarsaari, functionalism was personified in Ragnar Eklund. The
cleanest example is the gas station building completed in 1939 at the
corner of Isonkatu and Perämiehenkatu. The building is protected by the
site plan, but the original functionalist style has been lost after the
renovations; the building has, among other things, windows foreign to
the style. Other representatives of functionalism are the Östanlid
tuberculosis sanatorium designed by Ragnar Wessmann in 1938 and the
Pedersöre Handelslag building designed by Erkki Huttusen.
The
romanticism of the 1940s and 1950s is represented by the Armiro house
(1940), Pohjoisnumme parish house, City house (1956) and Nars house
(1956) designed by Karl Johan Ahlskog. Between 1959 and 1961, a large
number of new residential buildings were built in Pietarsaari. At that
time, a sulfate cellulose factory was built in the city and housing was
needed for the workers who moved to the city. A building complex named
"Jakolosa" was built in the area between Luutavuorenkatu and Ristikar
school. Jakolosa's three apartment buildings formed a barrack-like
courtyard. Opposite Jakolosa, the three-story Element House "Masken"
designed by architect Kaj Englund was built, which may have been modeled
after the Käärmetalo in Käpylä, Helsinki, which was completed in the
Olympic year of 1952. Jakolosa's A building was demolished in 2015, and
C building was demolished in 2017. Masken was demolished in the spring
of 2019.
During the construction of the sulfate cellulose
factory, detached houses were also built in Pohjois Kråkholma. Architect
Egil Nordin designed the buildings for blocks 28–38 and the site plan
change for blocks 7 and 15. The design of the street network was
influenced by Greece. In 1974, Kaj Englund drew up a site plan for
Kaskiniemi with buildings for blocks 6–13. In the years 1974–1976, more
apartment buildings were built in the area: five seven-story buildings
and a few three-story buildings.
In the 1980s, construction was
mainly the construction of detached houses. During the decade, a few
larger commercial and residential properties designed by Roger Winger
were built in the core, such as the commercial building completed for
the savings bank Deposita and the Kaupunginhotelli's new building.
Walter Thomén designed a five-story residential and commercial building
on the grounds of the Methodist church.
Parks There are 35 municipal playgrounds in Pietarsaari. In 1903, the
city's garden board started its activities.
Koulupuisto is a park
with almost a thousand different plant species located in the center of
the city next to the high school. It was donated by the Schauman family.
The original purpose of the park was to support the hobby of botany in
the city's schools.
The Aspegren garden was founded by Reverend
Gabriel Aspegren in the Rosenlund rectory in the middle of the 18th
century. The rectory served as the residence of the vicar of Pedersöre
until the 1990s. The garden was symmetrically divided into blocks,
where, among other things, useful plants and fruit trees were
cultivated. The garden was rebuilt in 2001–2003. The area is managed by
the Aspegren Garden Foundation and the area is open to the public.
Concordia Park is a park named after the sailing frigate Concordia.
The specialty of the park is a birch variant originating from Sweden,
called Betula pendula laciniata speciae nova in Latin.
Raatihuoneenpuisto and Runeberg park between Kauppiaankatu and
Raatihuonekatu form a unified park area. In Runeberg Park, there is a
bust sculpture of J. L. Runeberg that is twice the size of life.
Prehistory and the Middle Ages
The area of present-day Pietarsaari
was still completely covered by water at the beginning of time, and it
wasn't until the 8th century that the first parts began to rise above
sea level. The first areas to rise from the sea are Myllymäki, the area
of Jakobstads gymnasium and Kirkoranna on Käräjätalonkatu. The area of
Pietarsaari joined the mainland in the 16th century.
Pedersöre,
the mother island of Pietarsaari, with its harbors, is an old trading
place. In the 13th century, the entire present-day Ostrobothnia was
divided into two parishes, Mustasaari and Pedersöre. The latter included
the areas from Vöyri to the border of the kingdom. An old trade route
from northern Sweden to Häme also passed through the area. Pedersöre's
name is mentioned for the first time in documents in 1348.
Founding of the city
On June 19, 1652, Queen Kristina of Sweden gave
Count Jakob De la Gardie permission to found a new town in Pedersören.
However, the count died soon, and his widow Ebba Brahe founded the city
on October 27, 1652. The coat of arms of Pietarsaari is inspired by the
De la Gardie family coat of arms.
In 1653, a magistrate's office
was established in Pietarsaari. Jacob Josephson was elected as the first
mayor of the city. Pietarsaari's first school started in 1654, and
bishop Johannes Gezelius the younger consecrated the town's first church
in February 1691. Until then, the people of St. Petersburg had been
going to the church in Pedersören. Pietarsaari and Pedersöre had a
common clergy until 1908.
18th century
During the Big Hatred,
Russian soldiers captured the city twice and burned it to the ground.
The majority of the city's inhabitants fled across Merenkurku to Sweden,
the forests or the archipelago. Many were captured and some were killed.
In the 1720s, some of the city's former residents returned to their
places of residence and a new population moved to the city.
A
pitch pot was established near the port of Pietarsaari in 1754 and a
tobacco spinning mill in 1762, which later became the Strengberg tobacco
factory. Pietarsaari received a partial settlement right in 1765 and a
full one in 1793. As a result, foreign trade and shipbuilding gained
momentum. Like other coastal cities of Ostrobothnia, the most important
export was tar.
Pietarsaari has traditionally been a shipbuilding
and shipping town. In the second half of the 18th century, Pietarsaari
was Finland's largest producer of ships. In 1797, a shipping company was
formed to centralize shipbuilding in one place. Veistämö was founded in
Calholma and was named Calholmens skeppsvarv. Today, the area is called
Varvet. Over the next 75 years, around 150 ships were built there.
19th century
The population of Pietarsaari in 1810 was just under
1,100 people. In the Finnish War of 1808–1809, both Russian and Swedish
troops marched through the city. In 1835, on the night between the
second and third day of September, the city burned from Etelätulli to
Kaupunginsalmi. A total of 73 of the city's 275 built plots were
destroyed in the fire. The Crimean War interrupted the economic
development of Pietarsaari in the 19th century. Russia and some merchant
ships were embargoed, and Pietarsaari's merchant fleet was reduced to a
third of its former size. The British found Pietarsaari despite the
demolition of the sea marks and fired cannons at the city.
The
most important shipping company family of the 19th century was Malm.
Ship owner Peter Malm owned, among other things, a barque named
Hercules, which was the first Finnish ship to sail around the world in
1844–1847. Pietarsaari's first telephone connections were created when
Otto Malm acquired two telephones in 1873. A railway was built in
Pietarsaari in 1886. Otto Malm paid half and the Finnish state paid
half. At the same time, kerosene lamps were erected on Asematie and the
market square, which were the first street lights in the city.
20th century
The population of Pietarsaari was 2,867 people in 1900.
Norrmalm, or Skata, the old wooden district of Pietarsaari, originally
consisted mostly of sailors' quarters. With industrialization, the
district became a working-class district. The island of Pietarsaari has
remained mostly Swedish-speaking, although especially in the 1960s and
after, a considerable number of Finnish-speakers moved to the city due
to the expansion of industry.
At the beginning of the 20th
century, Pietarsaari became industrialized. Several small companies and
large factories were established in the city, such as Strengberg,
Pietarsaari Konepaja and Wilh. Schauman, expanded. Municipal services
also expanded and many public buildings were built in the city.
Pietarsaari got an electricity plant, a city sauna, a fire station,
Malmi Hospital and a maternity hospital.
The Whites occupied
Pietarsaari on January 28, 1918 under the leadership of Jaeger
Lieutenant Lauri Tiainen. The Russian troops in the city were disarmed
and a shooting incident occurred on Amerikankatu near Wiik's house. In
the Pietarsaari executions on March 2, seven men were executed by
shooting on the walls of the Strengberg factory. Among them were, among
others, leaders of the Finnish-speaking labor movement.
Many of
the small businesses founded in the 1920s went bankrupt with the
depression. Tuberculosis and other diseases spread in the region, so a
sanatorium was built in Pörkenäs. In 1929, a water tower designed by
architect Lars Sonck was built and the water and sewer system was
expanded. The city center was developed in the 1930s, and for example
Visasmäki and Perämiehenkatu were widened.
After the start of the
Winter War in 1939, civil protection was intensified in Pietarsaari.
Military hospitals were established in several schools. Pietarsaari
received the evacuated Karelians and also some of Karelia's industry.
Rovaniemi moved its administration to Pietarsaari for a short time.
Pietarsaari was bombed on Shrove Tuesday, February 22, 1944. Bombs fell
around Skutnäsinkatu and Kirkkoranna. Seven people were killed.
Kirkkoranta, Skutnäs, Kaskiniemi and the school grounds of Ruusulehto
and Vestersund were joined from the rural municipality of Pietarsaari to
the city of Pietarsaari in 1950. There was a wave of migration to
Pietarsaari in the early 1950s. Industrial establishments expanded and
many small businesses were established. New apartment buildings were
built in the city center; we were talking about a small town and a big
city complex. The city districts of Permo, Länsinummi and Itänummi got
their start at that time.
In the 1960s, Oy Wilhelm Schauman Ab
began to expand its factories, which is why a new wave of migration
headed to Pietarsaari. Many residents of St. Petersburg were deeply
touched by the plane crash that happened in Koivulahti on January 3,
1961. Mayor Paul Hallvar, harbor captain Eskil Wikström and five other
townspeople died in the accident. In 1969, regular ferry service between
Pietarsaari and Skellefteå began, which continued until 1998.
The
Kytömäki residential area in the Itälä district was built in the 1970s.
In 1977, areas between Vestersundinkylä and Pörkenäs, as well as Pirilö,
Tapaninniemi, Kivilös and Fiskars, were annexed from the Pietarsaari
rural municipality to the city. Areas from the village of Östenso and
its surroundings were also annexed to the city, such as the areas of the
waterworks and the shooting range.
In the 1980s, a structural
change took place in Pietarsaari's business life. Many of the industrial
plants stopped operating, many wooden houses were demolished and a new
bank building was built in Kanavapuistik. The demolition of Fontelli's
house in 1983 was reported nationwide. In July 1985, the Pedersöre
church was almost completely destroyed by fire. During the recession of
the early 1990s, municipal and state services were reduced.
Pietarsaari's pedestrian street was inaugurated on October 1, 1992, and
the Pietarsaari housing fair was a success in 1994.
21st century
Pietarsaari celebrated its 350th anniversary in 2002. Industrial jobs
have disappeared from the Pietarsaari region in the 21st century. A new
industry has taken the place of the closed down industry, and many of
those dismissed from the industry have found a new job, for example in
the service sector.
The Lammassaari and Uusipello Town Districts
were built in Pietarsaari in the 2000s, and the Otsolahti extension was
planned in the 2010s. In a survey in 2017, EPSI Rating measured the
satisfaction of Finns with their municipality of residence on a scale of
0–100. The most dissatisfied residents were found in Pietarsaari; the
city scored only 56.1 points. In the corresponding survey of 2018,
Pietarsaari was the city that improved its residents' satisfaction the
most.
The city's population at the end of 2018 was 19,278. Pietarsaari is
Finland's 60th largest municipality in terms of population. The city is
bilingual: at the end of 2018, 56.3 percent of the residents spoke
Swedish and 34.7 percent Finnish. Exactly 9 percent of residents who
speak another language as their mother tongue lived in the city. Among
the other language groups, the largest is Arabic, followed by
Vietnamese, Bulgarian, Persian and English. The share of foreign
citizens in the population was 7.1 percent in 2017. The Pietarsaari
sub-district includes Kruunupyy, Luoto, Pedersören municipality,
Pietarsaari and Uusikaarlepyy. The region has approximately 48,600
inhabitants.
Pietarsaari's demographic development has been
negative since 1980. The population of Pietarsaari peaked at 20,700 in
1980. The last time the population exceeded 20,000 was in 1987. In 2000,
the population was 19,636, so the population has not decreased very much
per year. Instead, the share of Finnish speakers has clearly decreased.
In the 1980s, the share of Finnish-speaking residents of St. Petersburg
was about 45 percent, while at the end of 2017, 35 percent were
Finnish-speaking. The number of Swedish speakers has remained stable,
and the decline in Finnish speakers has been replaced by immigration.
According to Statistics Finland's 2011 statistics, Pietarsaari
attracts migrants especially from the neighboring municipalities of
Uusestakaarlepyi, Pedersöre and Kruunupyi. Luoto is an exception, as
migration has been directed from Pietarsaari there. Pietarsaari is also
losing residents to bigger cities elsewhere in Finland.
At the end of 2017, Pietarsaari had 19,379 inhabitants, of which 18,920 lived in agglomerations, 322 in sparsely populated areas, and the places of residence of 137 were unknown. Pietarsaari's agglomeration rate is 98.3%. The population of Pietarsaari's agglomeration belongs to only one agglomeration, i.e. Pietarsaari's central agglomeration, of which 18,920 people lived in the area of the city of Pietarsaari and 1,904 people in the area of the municipality of Pedersöre.
There are two congregations of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Pietarsaari: Jakobstads svenska församling and Pietarsaari
Finnish congregation. These belong to the parish association of
Pietarsaari region. The Finnish congregation of Pietarsaari also
operates in the area of Pedersöre municipality. Among the parishes of
the Finnish Orthodox Church, the Vaasa Orthodox parish operates in the
Pietarsaari area. There has been Orthodox parish activity in Pietarsaari
since 1960.
There are several revival movements in the
Pietarsaari area, the strongest of which are the Laestadianernas
Fridsföreningars Förbund from Lestadion, the Swedish-language revival
movement Kyrkans Ungdom, the Swedish-language missionary organization
Svenska Lutherska Evangeliföreningen, revivalism, and to some extent the
Pentecostalism. Pentecostalism, the Free Church tradition and the
Salvation Army are also significant within the Free Church communities.
The Pietarsaari Baptist Church was founded in 1870 and the Free
Church in 1892. The Salvation Army started its operations in Pietarsaari
in 1896. It founded the Finnish-speaking II department in Pietarsaari,
which was in operation until the beginning of the 1980s. The Pietarsaari
Adventist church was founded in 1929 and the Pentecostal church in 1934.
Jehovah's Witnesses founded a Swedish-speaking congregation in
Pietarsaari in 1942 and a Finnish-speaking one in 1952. The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints founded a congregation in Pietarsaari
in the fall of 1946. The congregation had been operating in Pietarsaari
since 1877, unregistered. The Muslim community has a prayer room in
Pietarsaari.
Pietarsaari's first public school was founded in the town hall in
1873. The following year, a new school building was inaugurated in Skata
on Alholminkatu. In 2019, there were ten primary schools in Pietarsaari:
four in Finnish, five in Swedish and a language immersion school.
Pietarsaari is the only place in Finland that organizes language
immersion lessons in both domestic languages. Finnish-language primary
schools are Itälä school, Länsinummen school and Ruusulehto school.
Swedish-language elementary schools are Bonäs school, Vestersundsby
school, Kyrkostrand-Jungman school and Lagman school. There are two
middle schools in Pietarsaari: the Finnish-speaking Etelänummi school
and the Swedish-speaking Oxhamn school. Finnish-speaking Pietarsaari
high school and Swedish-speaking Jakobstads Gymnasium have operated in
the same building since autumn 2013
Optima offers vocational
training for young people and adults. The main part of the education is
in Swedish, but adult education is taught in both Finnish and Swedish.
Campus Allegro offers higher education. The education is oriented
towards the cultural sector and international relations in the field of
trade or tourism.
Pietarsaari region's music college was founded
in 1974. For its establishment, the city council allocated 25,200 marks
for operating expenses for the fall semester and 10,000 marks for
movable property. The music school was inaugurated on September 30, 1974
at Rådman school.
Pietarsaari city library is located right in the center of
Pietarsaari, on the edge of the market. The library is part of
Ostrobothnia's Fredrika libraries, which include the libraries of 11
municipalities. According to the statistics of Finland's public
libraries, a total of 260,129 loans were made on the island of
Pietarsaari in 2018. The number of book loans was 219,824, and the
number of visitors was 120,849. In the 2010s, the number of borrowings
and visitors has been decreasing, as in 2010, 271,464 book loans were
made and the library was visited 180,650 times.
Pietarsaari's
city library began its operations in the city hall premises on December
15, 1900. In the early decades, the library operation was financed by
grants from the Malmi cultural fund and the liquor company. The library
moved to its current premises in 1999.
The Social and Health Agency of Pietarsaari is responsible for social and health care services in Pietarsaari, Luoto, Pedersören municipality and Uudenkaarlepy. Pietarsaari has maternity hospital cooperation with Central Ostrobothnia Central Hospital (Kokkola/Soite) and Vaasa Central Hospital. Surgical operations requiring follow-up care ended in Pietarsaari in January 2017. Cataract, hernia and minor hand operations are still treated at Malmi Hospital. The hospital was built with funds donated by Otto Malmi in 1908.
The plans for Pietarsaari's water and sewerage facilities were almost
ready in 1907, but only the sewerage facility was partially completed
before the First World War. At the end of the 1930s, Pietarsaari's sewer
network almost completely covered the city's planned area. The water
tower was built in Pietarsaari in 1929–1930. In 1938, the city's first
sewage treatment plant was completed. The Pietarsaari water plant takes
the raw water it uses from the lower course of the Ähtävänjoki. The
current water plant is located near the mouth of the Ähtävänjoki.
The municipal waste management company Ab Ekorosk Oy has a waste
center in Pietarsaari.
Pietarsaari's first electricity plant was
acquired for the Strengberg tobacco factory in 1898. However, the
electricity from the electricity plant was not delivered to the
townspeople. The electricity plant of Jakobstads Elektriska
Belysningsaktiebolaget was built in the summer of 1901. Street lighting
was put into use in September of the same year. Sähkölaitos initially
operated as a limited company, until in 1906 the city of Pietarsaari
redeemed the shares at a price of FIM 105 each. In 2014, the city of
Pietarsaari sold its energy plant to the electricity company Herrfors.
The transaction concerned electricity distribution, district heating and
electricity trade. Pietarsaari is home to the world's largest
biofuel-based power plant, Alholmens Kraft 2, which was completed in
2001. The power plant produces district heating for the residents of
Pietarsaari, as well as process steam and heat for UPM's factories.
At the end of the 19th century, the Pietarsaari fire station had three employees, a fire marshal and two watchmen. In the 1880s, firemen were subordinate to the police. Between 1912 and 2012, the Pietarsaari fire station was located on the west side of the tobacco factory. The fire station moved to the current premises in connection with the former regional emergency center in January 2012.
At the end of the 19th century, the officials of the Pietarsaari police department were the city vicar, the chief police constable and five police constables. Since 1904, the police have been employed by the state, but the city of Pietarsaari paid part of the police department's expenses to the state. According to the decree that entered into force in 1925, each city formed its own police district. At that time, Pietarsaari's share of the police department's expenses was a third. In the second half of the 1930s, in addition to the chief of police, Pietarsaari had three chief constables and 16 constables. The cities' share of the costs of the police department remained until 1977. Pietarsaari police moved to their current premises in 2011.
Kantatie 68, which is about 11 kilometers long, is a connection from
the port of Pietarsaari to highway 8. Regional road 741 runs from
Lappajärvi to Pietarsaari in the following municipalities: Lappajärvi –
Kauhava – Pedersören municipality – Pietarsaari. Regional road 749 runs
from Uusestakaarlepyy to Pietarsaari and further through the Luoto
archipelago to Kokkola.
There are two bus companies operating in
Pietarsaari, Haldin & Rose and Ekmans Bussar. The Vippari service line,
which picks up customers from home on request, has been operating in
Pietarsaari since 1998. The service began as a three-year EU project in
which a computer program that forwarded invitations to bus traffic was
tested. Since then, the program and the public transport system were put
into permanent use in the city.
About 10 kilometers southeast of
Pietarsaari, Pännäinen railway station is located in Pedersören
municipality. There is a bus connection from Pietarsaari bus station to
Pännäinen station. The Pietarsaari line starting from the station is
part of the Ostrobothnia line of the Finnish railway network. It goes
from Pännäis to Pietarsaari and on to Alholma. There is only freight
traffic on the rail section. The electrification of the track section
was completed in 2017.
The port of Pietarsaari is both an export
and an import port. The annual size category of the goods flow is two
million tons. An 11 meter deep channel leads to the port. The length of
Laukonlaitur after the extension completed in 2009 is a total of 503
meters. Euroports Pietarsaari Oy acts as the port operator in the port
of Pietarsaari. The most important products passing through the port are
cellulose, lumber, paper, cement and lye.
Kokkola-Pietarsaari
Airport is located in Kruunupy about 30 kilometers northeast of the
center of Pietarsaari.
Pietarsaari's traffic safety was the
weakest in Finland in 2009, when looking at the risk of injury in
traffic.
There are 3,000 companies in the Pietarsaari region, of which
slightly more than 1,200 are in Pietarsaari. The city's geographical
location, road, rail and air traffic connections and the port offer good
conditions for business operations. The city has companies from all
sectors of business life, many of which export their products and
services abroad. Pietarsaari's employment self-sufficiency of 130.8
percent is one of the highest in Finland. In October 2018, it was
reported that unemployment in Pietarsaari has decreased in all age
groups. In August 2018, just over 7 percent of the workforce was
unemployed in the city.
Pietarsaari is an industry-driven
municipality, as in 2016 35.8 percent of the workforce worked in
processing, while the share of the entire country's processing industry
was 20.7 percent of the workforce. In Pietarsaari, 62.3 percent of the
workforce worked in the service sector and 1.0 percent in primary
production. According to the website of the city of Pietarsaari, the
municipality's largest employers are the city itself, the food company
Snellman, UPM-Kymmene, BillerudKorsnäs, Nautor, Baltic Yachts, Walki,
Beamex and OSTP.
Snellman's head office is in Pietarsaari, and
its factory employs around 700 people. UPM-Kymmene's Pietarsaari factory
area has a concentration of the bioforestry industry, and in addition to
UPM-Kymmena's pulp mills, there is Alholma's sawmill, BillerudKorsnäs
Finland's paper mill, Wali's paper processing plant and Alholmens
Kraft's power plant. In Pietarsaari, there is still a significant boat
sculpting business, the largest being Nautor, which manufactures Swan
boats. Most of the company's sailboats are exported. Baltic Yachts, on
the other hand, manufactures luxury yachts, and it has produced, among
other things, the world's largest composite sailboat Heteiros. Other
notable employers include OSTP (formerly Jaro), which manufactures
stainless steel products, and Walki, which manufactures packaging
materials. Beamex, on the other hand, specializes in calibration
technology for process instruments.
Pietarsaari has a wide range
of accommodation. There are hotels and other accommodation options in
the city. Stockmann had a department store in Pietarsaari between 1967
and 1982. In 1969, regular ferry service between Pietarsaari and
Skellefteå began, which continued until 1998.
Companies from St.
Petersburg that were already closed were Schauman's chicory factory,
Strengberg's tobacco factory and ice cream manufacturer Sun Ice. The
latter companies were bought out and run down during the recession of
the 1990s. The tobacco factory was founded in 1762. In 1842, its
ownership passed to Philip Ulric Strengberg and Victor L. Schauman. At
its peak in the early 20th century, the factory had more than a thousand
employees. The old buildings of the tobacco factory are the largest in
the city center and the new town hall is located in one of these
buildings. The round "bell ball" of the tobacco factory is a symbol of
the city. It is the largest clock in the Nordic countries in terms of
diameter. Finland's first machine-made lace and lace factory was founded
in the center of Pietarsaari along Isonkatu in the so-called Lassfolk
quarter in 1911 by Anders Lassfolk, who owned another factory that
produced wooden sleeves for the local tobacco industry. Dairy
cooperative Milkan Pietarsaari's operations ended at the end of 2004.
Grocery stores located in Pietarsaari are HalpaHalli, K-citymarket,
four K-Markets, K-supermarket, Lidl, Prisma and Sale.